Jürgen Linder

The purpose of this article is to investigate actions taken by the Social Insurance Agency (SIA) for long-term sickness absentees and possible associations of this with future sick leave or disability pension. For 384 long-term sickness absentees who had had a multidisciplinary medical assessment (MMA) during 2001-2006, three types of data were obtained: (1) case file information about SIA actions, (2) suggested rehabilitation measures from the MMA and (3) sickness absence and disability pension data. Most individuals had been subject to a range of actions by the SIA. Sixty percent had been invited to a coordination meeting, and half of those who assessed by the MMA for vocational rehabilitation were approved to get it by the SIA. Few SIA actions were associated with full or partial return to work. Although the studied individuals had been on sick leave for a long time, the number of SIA actions related to vocational rehabilitation was limited and came late in the sick-leave spell. The information from the MMA was often not used as a basis for further SIA action and seldom resulted in return to work. The positive MMA views on the potential of vocational rehabilitation were not met by SIA actions. Suggestions on vocational rehabilitation from a medical assessment was in many cases not used by the social insurance agency in relationship to long-term sickness absentees. Active rehabilitation measures by the social insurance agency were few and came late in the sickness absence process. Few of the activities taken by the social insurance agency enhanced return to work.

To describe the frequency of reported sleeping, depression and pain problems, the severity of these problems and the degree of self-estimated difficulties in mental functions and activities in relation to the sleep disturbance and pain category group in patients on long-term sick-leave. Cross-sectional study. A total of 1206 patients experiencing difficulty in resuming work. Patient examinations by specialists in psychiatry, orthopaedic surgery and rehabilitation medicine. Validated questionnaires, including status regarding depression, sleep, pain and functioning were used. The prevalence of sleep disturbance was 83%; 74% of the patients with moderate/severe sleep disturbance also had moderate/severe pain problems and 26% had no/mild pain problems. Fifty-seven percent of the patients with no/mild sleep disturbance and 83% of the patients with moderate/ severe sleep disturbance also had depression. The degree of difficulty in performing the 6 selected International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health activities and mental functions was higher for the category with moderate/severe sleep problems, compared with those with no/mild sleep problems. To optimize rehabilitation for patients on long-term sick-leave experiencing difficulties in returning to work, the results indicate a need also to focus attention on sleep problems and not only on pain and depression. This may entail the planning of measures to improve decision-making and concentration and alleviate lassitude, fatigability, sadness and pessimistic thoughts.

BACKGROUND: Studies indicate that long-term sickness absence reduces the ability to return to work (RTW). Multidisciplinary medical assessments (MMA) have been used as a method to receive a more versatile assessment of long-term sickness absentees (L

Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine is an international peer-review journal published in English, with at least 10 issues published per year.

Objective: The aim was to describe the differences in symptoms, functioning and quality of life between women on long-term sick-leave due to protracted musculoskeletal pain with and without concomitant depression. Design: Descriptive and comparisons with/without comorbid depression. Methods: 332 female patients were examined by three specialist physicians in psychiatry, orthopedic surgery, and rehabilitation medicine and assigned to four groups according to the ICD-10 diagnoses: low back/joint disorders (LBJ, n = 150), myalgia (M, n = 43), fibromyalgia (FM, n = 87), or depression without somatic pain diagnosis (DE, n = 52). Results: Patients with somatic pain conditions LBJ, M, or FM showed more activity-related difficulties if concomitant depression was present during the activities ‘focusing attention’, ‘making decisions’, and ‘undertaking a single task’; and in the domains ‘energy level’, ‘memory functions’, ‘emotional functions’, and ‘optimism/pessimism’. Patients with FM and concomitant depression perceived higher pain intensity than patients in group DE. No statistically significant differences in physically related activities were noted between each of the somatic pain conditions with and without coexisting depression. FM patients with coexisting depression reported fewer painful sites on their pain drawings compared with FM-patients without depression. Patients with LBJ or FM and concomitant depression reported lower quality of life in the dimensions vitality, social functioning, emotional role, and mental health. Comorbid depression affected disability and restricted working capacity by reducing mental activity and functioning but not by affecting physical activity problems. Conclusion: Women on long-term sick-leave, who have concomitant depression with LBJ or FM, also have more difficulties in focusing attention, making decisions, and carrying out tasks, and with memory functions and optimism/pessimism, as well as reduced quality of life in the dimensions of vitality, social functioning, emotional role, and mental health, than female patients without comorbid depression. As a consequence we suggest further efforts to integrate somatic and psychiatric interventions in the same rehabilitation program.

Peer reviewed article authored by (Klas Gustafsson, Göran Lundh, Pia Svedberg, et al). Read article or submit your manuscript for publishing.

Aims: The aim was to study whether sick-leave diagnoses of long-term sickness absentees were modified after a multidisciplinary assessment and if modifications differed with type of medical specialty of the latest physician to sick-list the patient. Methods: A sample of 635 long-term sickness absentees referred to a multidisciplinary assessment by Social Insurance Offices was included. Data were obtained through sickness certificates and medical records. Patients were examined by board-certified specialists in psychiatry, orthopaedic surgery, and rehabilitation medicine. Descriptive statistics were used. Results: The multidisciplinary assessment resulted in an increase from 1—2 to 2—3 diagnoses for most patients. Forty-five per cent of the male and 47% of the female patients had only somatic diagnoses at referral. After the multidisciplinary assessment these percentages were 20% and 29%, respectively. The rate of women and men given both psychiatric and somatic diagnoses increased from 30% at referral to about 55%. The shift from either only psychiatric or only somatic diagnoses to having these diagnoses in combination was associated with type of specialty of the physician who had sick-listed the patient. Conclusions: The study indicates that many patients on long-term sick-leave with unclear diagnoses may suffer from unrecognized, and therefore probably untreated, medical disorders and co-morbidity.

Background and objectives  Patients report well‐being as they are treated with phototherapy. We investigated hormone parameters and psychological well‐being after phototherapy in a placebo‐controlled study.Methods  A total of 77 patients with dermatological conditions and 22 healthy volunteers were divided into four groups. The patients received phototherapy either on the whole body or only on hands and/or feet. The volunteers were given either whole‐body phototherapy or placebo light. Serum or plasma samples were analysed for cortisol, calcium, magnesium, phosphate, TSH, T₄, T₃ and 25‐hydroxyvitamin D, and urine samples for cortisol. Patients and volunteers answered a questionnaire before and 6 weeks after phototherapy/placebo light. Psychiatric ratings were performed according to the Comprehensive Psychopathological Self‐rating Scale for Affective Syndromes, a self‐report version of which has been transformed to correspond to the Montgomery‐Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS).Results  In the patients who received whole‐body irradiation, we observed a significant improvement in both MADRS score and cognitive‐symptom score after the completion of phototherapy. We also observed a significantly higher level of 25‐hydroxyvitamin D after phototherapy, but no difference in the other hormone parameters.Conclusion  Whole‐body phototherapy of patients with dermatological conditions results in improved well‐being and significantly higher levels of 25‐hydroxyvitamin D in serum.

The number of patients with difficulty in resuming work after long-term sick leave has increased in several European countries including Sweden. The general aim of this study was a comprehensive description--based on multidisciplinary diagnostics and assessments--of patients with the common feature of marked difficulty in resuming working life after a long absence. A particular aim was to elucidate the possible effect of comorbidity on pain descriptors, disability, quality of life, assessed working ability and rehabilitation needs. Six hundred and thirty-five long-term sick leavers were referred from National Insurance Offices and consecutively accepted for investigation. Several self-report questionnaires were used. All patients were examined by three board-certified specialist physicians in psychiatry, orthopaedic surgery and rehabilitation medicine, respectively. Fifty-five percent of the patients had psychiatric-somatic comorbidity. The three most frequent combinations of diagnoses in the comorbidity group were fibromyalgia/myalgia and depressive episode, fibromyalgia/myalgia and recurrent depression, spinal pain and depressive episode, whereas the three most frequent in those with psychiatric diagnosis only were depressive episode, recurrent depression, phobias/anxiety. Differences in pain descriptors and in difficulties with activities were found among the three groups. All had lower health-related quality of life than references. Only one-sixth had no assessed working capacity and only 3% were assessed as able to resume work without rehabilitation; 80% were multidisciplinarily assessed as needing rehabilitation. Patients with psychiatric diagnoses, with or without concomitant somatic diagnoses, need medical rehabilitation or medical/vocational rehabilitation in combination to a greater extent than patients with somatic diagnoses only. This implies that medical rehabilitation programmes ought to adapt increasingly to the needs of patients with psychiatric-somatic comorbidity.